


If Not Now, Then The Next Life

by roxasagainst



Series: Experimental [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: DEATH AF, F/M, Ghoulification, Pre-War, Romance, Trauma, non-canon, seriously i dont really know how to tag without spoiling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6453334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxasagainst/pseuds/roxasagainst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>**This is largely based off of a dream i had the other night like whoaly shit you gotta read this**<br/>“What's your name?”<br/>“John.”<br/>“Last name?”<br/>He grinned, “That's another story for another day.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	If Not Now, Then The Next Life

**Author's Note:**

> ***based off a dream i had and oh bOY IT WAS SO REAL LIKE @ME WHAT THE FUCK  
> im also gonna post more one-shots if people are still into those or i could start a lil side story with this plot  
> this does NOT follow the game whatsoever and is Pre-War, i'll find the link to a picture of Pre-War Hancock that inspired this one <3

Not much is known about me. Other than the fact I was 22 and taken from my apartment in Concord, sent to work in a sweat shop located in a warehouse with women my age and younger. Ran by two lanky guys in their 30's and 40's, we were ordered to make ties by hand. We slept in bunk-beds, ate decently, definitely not paid for our services and treated like shit. They had guns and the over bearing masculinity factor, we couldn’t escape no matter how hard we tried. Who ever did make an attempt to leg for the huge, wooden slide doors suffered great, psychological consequences. What they were, the rest of us didn’t know, cause after it happened, they wouldn’t speak at all. Just obey. I made a few friends in the bunch, Mary and Tulip. Mary was a 35 year old housewife who was dropped off her by her husband who – must I mention – had put himself in deep gambling debt over the years. Tulip was a 12 year old girl who had been stalked for weeks by one of the goonies and was taken when her parents left the house for a romantic dinner. There was a babysitter, but the guy slit her throat. Poor girl has nightmares almost every night. Mary looks after her a lot, as she had kids of her own back home and Tulip thought of me as a big sister. Sweet, but sweet wasn’t getting us freedom.

Then, the bombs dropped. None of us saw it coming.

The following evening, one of the men, Vinny, has came in and shouted, in attempts to round us up in one place. None of us panicked, well with the exception of Tulip, we though he was gonna do his usual roundabout to see if we were doing our job. Simple enough. “Alright ladies, we got some special guests comin' and uh we need you to put all the merchandise in boxes. If they cant fit, burn them. We have to get rid of this shit quick.” The whispers started up like a small flame around me. A barrage of “Maybe he's letting us go afterward!” and “Do we have enough boxes?” Nobody asked as usual, he just went down the ladder and out the doors, leaving us to work in peace. However, I had other thoughts about whatever the hell was happening. Working against our will out in the middle of no where, then having to hide and destroy said work? They were getting what they deserved! It's gonna be a raid!

I almost hopped to my station in excitement as I both worked and slacked off. It feels good to finally leave this place, and to see them go out in a blaze of glory! I grinned, looking out the foggy, glass window of the warehouse, oddly enough. It was nice to see outside, even if we were surrounded by trees and a dirt trail. On that trail though, a red Jeep pulled up with 3 unfamiliar men inside. 2 of them were tall and built, the middle one had red hair and was in the process of popping a few pills of Mentats in his mouth. I shivered, sure the window was hard to see out of but _oh boy_ , he was cute. My face gave way of panic as I slumped over to pick up the ties I dropped, Mary rushing over to aid. “You okay Madeline? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine, just concerned is all.”

“Concerned about what? What Vinny said?”

“No”, I lied, “Just wondering what hes gonna do with all of these ties.”

She chuckled, “There's enough ties here for Boston and New York combined. I’m sure they're going to a good place.” After all the ties were in the box I excused myself to the bathroom, which shockingly enough, wasn’t even in the warehouse itself. Some one – usually Vinny – had to escort us up to a guest house 4 minutes away by foot. I waltzed lazily to the wooden door and knocked 4 times, a code between everyone that simply meant we needed to leave to the bathroom.

I was greeted with a nervous smile from the second in command, Leo, who I must admit had no idea what the fuck was going on a large majority of the time. Standing within a 2 inch radius was the red haired man from before, who had green eyes and dark freckles, his bodyguards im guessing, and Vinny.

“Madeline, do you think you can...have a talk with this gentleman for a while? He has something he'd like to discuss with you regarding your stay.”

What the fuck does _that_ mean? I wanted to say, but then again, he had guns. And pretty boy here had guns too, which is probably why Vinny looks like he pissed himself about 3 times. The man took my hand and we walked to a nearby tree, out of earshot of Leo and everyone else, giving me a hearty chuckle.

“You alright toots?”

“Define 'alright'.”

“Okay look, Leo doesn't have all the money he owes me, which is stupid, considering all the time I gave him. He doesn't know how else to pay up to satisfy me. So he offered – quote unquote – 'his prettiest and most disciplined girl of all' to get me off his back. That happens to be you, ya feel me?”

I smirk, mentally appreciating the comment and wanting to choke the life from him. What a little _shit_ , Leo was.

“I feel you.” I responded awkwardly.

“So he leaves the choice up to you, if you wanna leave or not.”

“If I go with you, will I be making ties for the rest of my life?”

“Hell no. I'll find you a place to stay under my wing so this shit doesn’t happen again.”

The offer was a hell of a deal, but it pained me to leave both Mary and Tulip. Especially Tulip, that girl still had a nice future going for her. I sigh and look back at the man, clearly high off of something other than Mentats.

“What's your name?”

“John.”

“Last name?” He grinned, “That's another story for another day.”

His dreamy gaze was broken as gunshots rang in the air and mushroom clouds were seen over the trees behind the warehouse.

“What the fuck is _that_?”

Screams followed behind as Vinny ran toward us, his shirt decorated with spatters of blood, hopefully his own.

“Hey short stack you wanna tell me what the fuck is popping off?”

“Philadelphia...bombs...they fell...” He panted between breaths. It wasn’t until a huge cloud of smoke, sand and ash came rushing toward us that we realized what was happening. I stood in awe, eyes wide and mouth hung open, realizing how much of my life I had wasted in this warehouse. John ended up stabbing Vinny repeatedly before dropping the knife and grabbing my wrist, instructing me to run.

“What are you doing?”

“My best.” He shouted.

“That debris is going 100mph we aren’t escaping that! Besides what do I have to live for at this point.”

“Shit doll don’t say that...”

I could have ran with him, but I slowed down my pace after a while and eventually fell onto the ground. The radiation and ash minutes behind me, I held my knees to my chest and started crying. I spent 3 years – _3 fucking years_ – in that shithole only to be taken out by a nuclear explosion. It wasn’t fair. I guess that’s all I choked out between sobs, causing John to turn around and hug me. He rubbed my hair and apologized for everything. Except it wasn’t his fault, he didn’t have to, but he was sincere in his words. Then it came. Fast. The pain was too much, it burned my skin off right down to the muscle, the sand mixed in was coarse and scratched at the raw flesh. It burned, it burned so much. But it was worse with John I could tell as he basically shielded me from most of it. His eyes were closed and I swore he stopped breathing, causing me to cry in his chest, us both rotting into the apocalyptic wasteland that was being shaped all around us.


End file.
